


And Then It Hit Him

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, Galra Keith, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 22:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7286974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Voltron is back together after being separated in the wormhole. They all learned a lot about themselves. About each other. Some...more than others. It's hard to take it all in, even after time has passed. But you don't always have to take it all alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Then It Hit Him

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [frostytips](http://frostytips.tumblr.com) and [hazel-the-space-ace](http://hazel-the-space-ace.tumblr.com/) because I saw [their post](http://fiveminilionbots.tumblr.com/post/146359929148/frostytips-calling-all-klance-shippers) and I just had to. I hope you both like it! It's not exactly exactly as your post describes, but I tried whoops. Thank you so much for inspiring my first published VLD fic!

"Have either of you seen a mullet pass through here?"

Pidge and Shiro both looked up at Lance, their faces eerily illuminated by the glow of technology. Wires were crisscrossed on the floor between them, running from Pidge's laptop to Shiro's arm. Pidge still had her fingers typing away on her keyboard despite not even looking at it, scripts that Lance could barely make sense of flashing across the screen as they took in data from the robotic appendage. Shiro looked tired - understandable, given what time it was - and also older. His hair had more gray in it than before, peppered here and there like flecks of salt. Pidge had gotten lankier and a lot taller, though she was still the shortest on the team. Her hair was longer, growing past her shoulders, but it was still as messy as ever.

"You mean Keith?" Shiro asked, a hint of amusement in his tired voice.

"Yeah, that guy. He wasn't in his room."

"He's probably in the training room," Pidge said, going back to looking at her screen after deeming Lance's quest as less important than her Galra magic-tech analyzing.

"You'd think so, what with it being one in the morning and him being a training junkie...but no. Not there," Lance said, deciding to step into the room instead of hunching awkwardly in the doorway. Pidge wasn't the only one who'd gotten taller. Lance was a few inches taller than Shiro now. Just tall enough for his head to press uncomfortably against some of the ship's average doorframes if he stood up straight.

Shiro's eyebrows scrunched together as he thought. Lance noticed he was doing that a lot more recently. A thin worry line had begun to show between them even when his face was relaxed. Everyone had noticed, but even Lance didn't have the heart to crack a joke about it.

"Hm...Sorry, Lance, I haven't seen him pass through here. Maybe the others have seen hi-oof!"

Pidge yelped as Shiro's arm sparked and jerked to the side, smacking him in his gut. Hard, by the sound of it. Lance promptly escaped outside the room. He wasn't scared. Just worried he might get in the way. Yeah.

"Shit, sorry Shiro!" Pidge said, typing away at mach speed. The sparking quickly subsided, though the limb still twitched a bit.

" _Language_ , Pidge."

Leave it to Shiro to reprimand her for cussing but not for making his arm go haywire.

"I don't think I'm getting any more out of it for tonight, Shiro," Pidge sighed, closing her laptop.

"I second that," Lance piped in from outside.

"I can't help but agree with you," Shiro said, disconnecting wires and rubbing his stomach. "Anyways, I know Hunk and Coran were doing some repairs on one of the hubs on the lower starboard deck. That's all I can offer, sorry."

"Nah, it's cool. Thanks Shiro. Get some sleep before you two turn into zombies. We don't need another sleep walking incident."

"That was  _one time!_ " Pidge exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "All I did was steer the ship a little bit."

"Yeah," Lance raised an eyebrow, "Into an asteroid field."

Lance ran as she threw her mouse, yelling something after him along the lines of "no lasting damage" and "minor scrapes on the paint job."

Suuuuure.

**\-- V --**

After a bit of brisk walking, he soon arrived at the deck. Only problem was, it was a huge deck. It took him a while to find the hub Shiro was talking about. The repairs must have been more complicated than originally planned. Schematics and tools lay scattered around the two people who were still up working on the hub.

"Who goes there?" Coran's voice rang from inside the opened hub. He must've heard Lance's footsteps. Hunk stopped rummaging in the toolbox and turned to see him, a few loose hairs falling out of the bun he had to keep his hair in while working. Lance didn't know whether he kept forgetting to cut it or just didn't want to, but it was long enough to brush his shoulders now.

"Lance? What're you doing up?" Hunk asked.

"Oh! Lance! What a surprise. If you came to visit I'm a bit, err, preoccupied at the moment," Coran said. Lance had a sneaking suspicion that by "preoccupied" he meant "stuck."

"Couldn't sleep," he shrugged. "Either of you seen Keith?"

"You're awake  _and_ looking for Keith? What's the Universe coming to?"

Lance's face scrunched up a bit the way it always did when he got flustered.

"I just thought we could train! Like I'd go looking for the guy otherwise."

He knew it was too obvious a lie as soon as the words left his lips. It was true enough that he wanted to train, but he  _had_ been seeking out Keith more often lately. As far as Lance knew they'd been the first two to find each other after the...incident. The wormhole gone wrong. They'd ended up getting a lot closer. Reluctantly. At least, it had been at first. Something had been feeling different lately. Lingering glances. A tickling feeling in his stomach. He'd tried not to think too much about it, nervous about what kind of conclusion he may come to.

"Uh-huh," Hunk said, smug skepticism seeping into his tone. "Welp, sorry, but I haven't seen him. I think Allura's still up though, she brought us snacks a while ago. She's probably on the main deck."

"Gotcha. Thanks man. Good luck with your  _preoccupation_ over there," Lance snickered.

"Gee. Thanks."

**\-- V --**

As he walked to the main deck, Lance's thoughts wandered. Seriously, where could he be? He'd already looked in the places he would most likely be at. Namely his room and the training room. He'd even tried the kitchen. No luck. And he'd done a bit of wandering since then until he found Shiro and Pidge. And then again to find Hunk and Coran. Still nothing. He knew the ship was huge, but _someone_ should've seen him, right? It was just weird. That's why he kept trying to find him. It was weird and his curiosity was piqued. He just didn't like giving up, is all. Sure, there was an uneasy feeling in his stomach, but he was probably just hungry.

_Thunk!_

"Ow! Ffff-! Ssson of a- hnnn," Lance groaned, cursing quietly under his breath as his hand clutched his head. He'd been thinking and not looking where he was going and had walked right into a smaller doorway down the corridor from the main deck. He heard light footsteps quickly approaching him and did his best to look more composed and less like an idiot who pretty much walked into a wall. A second later, Allura rounded the corner and spotted him.

"Lance! So it was you after all. I was on my way to bed and heard a thunk over this way. What happened? You look like you're in pain!"

"Ahaha nothing nothing!" he said quickly, embarrassed to have been found by the Princess of all people. She wasn't usually one to tease, but somehow that just seemed to make his embarrassment worse whenever things like this happened. She was so...

"Did you run into the doorway again? Oh, you did, didn't you? I've told you to be more careful!"

...brutally honest.

"Have you seen Keith?" Lance blurted out in a poor attempt to save himself from her mother-hen mode.

Surprisingly, it worked. Her expression changed from mild worry to confusion.

"Keith? No, I can't say I have. Why?"

"I, uh, couldn't sleep and..."

He faltered for a second. The more he said it the sillier it sounded to him.  _Oh yeah, I couldn't sleep, so my first though was to go looking for the guy I always fight with! Great idea!_

Allura's reaction wasn't what he was expecting. Her cheeks took on a slightly warm tinge as her eyes widened just a fraction.

"Oh," she said, sounding surprised and...flustered? Now Lance was just confused. He tried to think what could've made her react that way. That's when he realized that she'd probably interpreted what he said and why he paused a bit differently.

"Whoa! No. No no! I didn't mean it like that. I was looking for him to train. That's all. No one else has seen him so I came to you."

"...Oh. Yes! Training! Of course!" she said a bit too quickly. "Ahem. Well, I should be able to find him with the castle's cameras. I'll take a quick look around for you."

They both walked the short distance back to the main deck and she brought up several live feeds.

"Hm...he's not in any of the usual places...hold on...ah! There! On the...upper starboard observation deck?" Allura finished, sounding puzzled.

"Is he not supposed to be there?" Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, it's not that. It's just that no one ever really goes there. We've got sensors to detect anything approaching the ship, and if it's stars you're looking for you can look out of any window."

 _'But that would be the best place to do it alone,'_ Lance thought, irritation mixing with the uneasy feeling in his stomach. All this, and he finds out Keith is avoiding him? Okay, well, maybe not him specifically, but still. Just how long had he been there, staring off into space, thinking of who knows what?

"Well that explains why no one's seen him," Lance grumbled. "Thanks, Princess. Go catch some Z's. Sorry for keeping you up."

"I'm not sure how one would catch a zee, but I'm going to assume that's some sort of Earth slang for sleeping. I'm off to bed. And, Lance..." she hesitated, biting her lip. "Nevermind. I'm sure he'll be fine if you talk to him. Goodnight!"

And with that, she was gone, leaving Lance confused again. What was that about?

Lance glanced back at the video feed of Keith sitting there on the floor next to the glass of the observation deck's dome. Staring. His shoulders tensed. Something pulled at his gut. Then the video feeds all closed one after the other. He sighed in frustration.

"Time to see just what he's getting himself all worked up about, I guess."

**\-- V --**

Lance found Keith in the same position he'd been in in the video. The room was dark except for the soft blue glow given by a small lamp floating next to Keith and the faintest of light from the stars. As soon as he set eyes on him, the uneasy feeling in his stomach eased, and a sense of relief washed over him. He didn't want to acknowledge it, but it was surprisingly strong. Fine, so he'd been worried. It didn't change the fact that he was still irritated at being avoided. He barely took two steps inside when Keith sighed.

"What do you want, Lance?" he said, sounding more tired than annoyed, though based on their history of interactions that would likely change.

"Oh, come on. How'd you know it was me?"

"I could hear you stomping here from a mile away."

Had he been stomping? Whatever.

"Yeah, but how'd you know it was  _me?_ "

Silence.

Great.

Lance walked up to where the other was sitting. Keith made no move to stomp him, but he shoulders tensed up even more.

"So this is where you've been? Holed up here all alone all day?"

"Not  _all_ day."

"Coulda fooled me. _I'm Keith and I'm so cool and aloof and edgy and I've been avoiding people to brood like an angsty child!_ "

"Why do you care?"

"I've been looking for you," Lance said before he could really think about it. He had that bad habit of speaking before thinking.

"...Oh," Keith said. He sounded a bit surprised. Was it surprising, him looking for Keith? He supposed so, but he thought things had changed a bit between them. That wasn't just all in his head, right?

The uneasy feeling returned.

"I mean I haven't been looking for you _all_ day. Obviously, pssh. I couldn't sleep earlier so I wanted to train. And I thought, hey! Me and mullet head fight all the time! Perfect! But then you weren't in your room. Or the training room. And Pidge, Shiro, Hunk, and Coran hadn't seen you. So then I went to find Allura and she saw you sulking up here so...uh...here I am?"

Again, silence.

_Great._

He was beginning to think he'd dug his own grave when Keith spoke up.

"I'm not  _sulking._ "

"That's exactly what someone who's sulking would say. In that tone even."

"I'm not."

"Dude, you didn't jump on the opportunity to go train in the middle of the night. You're sooo sulking right now."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are toooo."

"Argh! Listen if you just came here to bother me then go away."

"Why, so you can be alone up here all night?"

"What if I want to be? Why are you always so...so...!"

"Kind? Charming? Handsome?"

"...Nevermind. Stay if you want, I don't care."

And with that, Keith promptly stopped looking at him and began giving him the cold shoulder.

So of course, being the person that he is and seeing how irritated Keith was by his presence, Lance decided to stay.

Surprisingly, they sat there in silence for a good while. Both just staring out at the stars as they all floated through space. Lance kept fidgeting, not one for staying still for long. He kept shifting, fiddling with his jacket, glancing at Keith.

But he stayed quiet. And he stayed there.

Eventually, Keith sighed.

"Look, I'm...I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. Thanks for, uh, worrying about me. But you don't have to stay here if it makes you so uncomfortable."

Lance was about to retort with an  _I wasn't worried_ , but the words just wouldn't leave his lips.

"It''s alright," he said instead. "But are you?"

"I...I don't know," Keith said, bringing a knee up to hug against his chest. He looked so alone. He sounded so vulnerable. He'd hardly ever seen Keith like this before. Actually, scratch that. This was probably the first time. He'd seen him emotional before, but never like this. Never so quietly. Lance felt a pain tugging at his chest. A weight settling over his heart as the air grew heavy in his lungs.

"It just...it still hits me sometimes. I'll be fine, then someone says something that reminds me I'm...I'm not one of you. I'm one of _them_."

He spat the last word out with such venom that Lance had no trouble guessing who Keith meant by "them."

Galra.

They all knew by now. It was a sensitive subject. Of course no one judged him for it, but it had been a shock all the same. Especially, of course, for Keith. He hadn't had any idea of his true origin.

"I hate this. I feel like a prisoner in my own body. I don't want it if it has the DNA of a murderer."

"Hey, you can't think like that-"

"Oh? And I suppose you're going to stop me?" Keith turned on him, his eyes bitter, his voice rough. "You don't  _get_ it. You'll never  _get_ it. If my pod hadn't hadn't crashed on Earth, I'd  _still_ be there! With them! I'd be taking over planets, killing innocents, fighting-" his voice broke, and he struggled to get the next words out. Even then, he only managed it as a whisper. "Fighting all of you."

Lance thought he'd be shocked at the outburst. Maybe even angry at being yelled at. He wasn't sure. He _was_ a bit angry, but he wasn't quite sure why. And it hurt. It hurt to feel the loneliness and anger radiating off of Keith and want to take it all away.

"...I don't believe that."

"And what the hell will your beliefs change?"

"Nothing."

"Ha! See? You're just full of-"

"But neither will yours."

" _Excuse_ me?" Keith growled, now on his knees and glowering down at Lance. Lance decided to do the same. They knelt there, facing each other, staring each other down. A position both were familiar with. But it felt so different now. Lance was sure it wasn't just him. The air was heavier. The atmosphere wasn't because they were rivals. It was something else. Something more serious. More raw.

"I'm saying that nothing that either of us believes about what _could_ have happened will change anything!" he said, his voice getting louder as his emotions got away with him. "You believe that if you were with them, you'd have become like them. I believe you're not the kind of person to kill innocent people, Galra or not. And I'm going to keep believing that. Because that's the Keith I know. That's the Keith we all know. You're not one of them, dammit. Is that what you've been thinking? Up here, alone? Is that what you think _we_ think? What _I_ think? You're not, and never will be one of them. You're one of _us_. And I'll be damned if you convince yourself otherwise. I won't let you."

Keith stared at him, speechless. Lance had ended up leaning closer and closer as he'd talked. He was close enough now to see flecks of lighter, silvery blue in the cobalt of Keith's eyes. Close enough that he could feel breath against his skin. Close enough to see the mask of anger on Keith's face shatter, revealing something so much softer beneath. Close enough to see his eyes flicker downwards.

And that's when it hit him. Everything he'd been feeling. They weren't just single incidents. And it wasn't just him. It was all part of a bigger feeling. In that moment, he knew Keith was feeling is too. Lance realized what was going to happen just before it did. He let it.

Keith grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling him in and leaning upwards. They closed their eyes as they closed the distance between them. Surprisingly, they didn't crash together. It was soft, if anything, and over before Lance could fully appreciate the feeling of how Keith's lips felt on his. Keith pushed him away, and if Lance thought his blush could get bad it was nothing compared to Keith's.

"I- Sorry. I don't...I didn't mean to make you, uh...I just-"

"Keith?"

Silence.

Fine.

"Okay, stay quiet, that's cool, but I just want you to know if you don't kiss me again I'm going to kiss you instead."

"Wha...?"

Lance leaned as closed as he could without actually touching the other. When he spoke, his voice sounded rougher than normal.

"I said, kiss me again."

Another time, but Lance couldn't tell who'd actually initiated it. It was rough. Needy. It was messy, since they didn't move together. Teeth clacked once or twice, and they kept separating for a split second and then kissing again, trying, trying, trying to find a rhythm. Eyes flutter just slightly open. Lance thought Keith's eyelashes looked suspiciously damp, but wisely decided not to mention it. Keith tasted like mints. Lance loved every imperfect second of it.

They pulled apart again, and Lance took the time to speak.

"So it  _wasn't_ all in my head," he panted.

"Why do you always open your mouth at the worst moments."

He wasn't sure whether Keith was talking about what he'd just said, or the horrible kissing that just happened. He actually couldn't bring himself to care. He smirked and leaned in again, their noses brushing.

"You like me." The statement came out as more of a giggle than a tease like he'd intended.

"Shut up."

"I hate to sound cliche, but _make me._ "

And then they were kissing again. With all the emotion from before, only this time they finally settled into each other. Keith's hands let go of his jacket and slowly moved over his torso, one of them keeping him close by clutching at his shirt, the other trailing fire behind it wherever it went. Lance ran his hands through Keith's hair. It was surprisingly soft. It made it easier to tell Keith to change angles. Every movement of his fingers drew some sort of reaction from the other. A movement, a change of pace, a noise. Lance had never appreciated Keith's long hair more than in those moments. He didn't know when it happened but he felt Keith's hand in his hair too, switching between running his fingers upwards into the short locks and downwards over the top of his spine and shoulders. His tongue ran across Keith's bottom lip before his teeth lightly grazed it. He felt Keith sigh slightly before opening his mouth, and then their tongues met and that hint of minty taste flooded into Lance's mouth so much stronger than before. Underneath it he could taste something sweet. Is that what Keith normally tasted like? Lance wouldn't have pegged him as sweet before this, but in the moment it seemed to fit. Everything fit. They fit. Together.

Eventually, breathing through their noses wasn't quite enough and they had to pull apart again to catch their breaths.

They knelt there, foreheads pressed together, hands cupping faces, knees beginning to ache. They looked into each other's eyes and Lance just couldn't help it. This was so weird. But it wasn't. He was so happy. He smiled, and a small laugh tumbled past his lips. Then another. And then he was giggling and leaning his head on Keith's shoulder and Keith's hand was in his hair again, stroking the shortest part at the base of his neck.

"What's so funny?" Keith said.

"Nothin'. Just...happy. I dunno, is that weird?"

"No. I guess it'd be weirder if you were unhappy after all of that."

"Wow, confident much?"

"No it's just..."

"Hm?"

"...I guess I'm happy too?" he said. It sounded more like a question. Lance's eyebrows knit together and he raised his head to look at Keith.

"Hey, no it's not like that," Keith hurriedly reassured him. "I  _am_ happy just... a lot just happened. And it's been a...a..."

Suddenly, Keith yawned loudly right in Lance's face. So of course Lance had to tease him about it. He whistled.

"Yawning after a make-out session? Am I that bad at kissing?"

"...Why do I like you again?"

"Dunno, you tell me."

"Hmmm...maybe later. I'm tired."

" _Wow._ Rude."

And then, finally, Keith smiled and laughed, and Lance felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Sorry. It's been a long day. We should both get some sleep. We can train in the morning."

"Yeah I guess you're right, but before we go, I wanna make sure we're clear."

"Hm?"

"Since you kissed me first, that means that I am undeniably and irresistibly attractive and you just couldn't keep your hands off me."

And then it hit him. Keith's fist that is. Right on the shoulder. It wasn't nearly strong enough to hurt, but it was sudden enough to make him yelp.

"What the heck!?"

"Again,  _why_ do I like you?" Keith asked, but it had no venom in it, especially not with the edge of his mouth quirked up like that.

"I'm beginning to ask myself the same question," Lance said, fake sniffling as he sadly rubbed his unharmed shoulder.

That earned him a snort as Keith finally stood up. He offered his hand to Lance and he took it, standing up but not letting go.

"C'mon, I'll walk you to your room."

"You say that as if our rooms aren't all in the same hallway."

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon," Lance said, beginning to walk and tugging Keith to go along with him.

"Hey, Lance...?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you. For looking for me."

"Any time."

And he meant it. He knew Keith still had a lot going on. Knew the thoughts wouldn't go away just cause he said so. But he was determined to be there for him, at the very least. Whenever the thought got bad again, he'd be there to reassure him. Any time, for as long as Keith would let him. And then some.

**Author's Note:**

> And there it is! I hope you all liked it! Sorry it dragged on in the beginning. I just like having everything set up and backstory is my passion, even for shorter fics like this.
> 
> I wanted to have Lance comfort Keith real gentle and sweet and understanding, but I figure he has to many emotions and he's not really the type to keep calm if the person he's talking to isn't calm either. So here we are with the emotional arguments and make-outs.
> 
> Also, I like to think that Lance was a bit in denial about his feelings not because Keith was a guy (he'd accepted his pansexuality long ago, tho his preference was usually for people who present femininely) but because, well, it's KEITH. The guy he was at odds with for so long. Even after some good old life-or-death bonding experiences, it was still such a different feeling than he was used to having for him. He never really expected it to happen. So he balked for a while there.
> 
> But! Though this is my writing, I suppose it's up to the reader to interpret what they want. Like I said, I just hope you all liked it. If you did, please comment or leave kudos! Thanks for reading!
> 
> PS - My voltron blog is [lionbots](http://lionbots.tumblr.com).


End file.
